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Johan Liebert
Johan Liebert is the main antagonist and the titular "monster" of the series. He is a fairly realistic take on an Anti-Christ figure and the exploration of Doomsday themes in anime/manga. Johan is quite a mysterious fellow who causes many tragedies in his wake, and he could be described as a serial killer of sorts. At the height of his terror in Ruhenheim, Johan is described by Herbert Knaup as the beast with seven heads and ten horns. Biography Johan Liebert and his twin sister, Anna, were born as the result of the eugenics experiment orchestrated by Franz Bonaparta in the early 1970s, the primary goal of which was to create a child who had not only an exceptionally high level of intellect and a flawless appearance, but could also "lead" human race. These children were born by the "breeding" of a man and woman who possessed those desired traits. One pairing set up was between Viera Černá and Bonaparta's younger stepbrother (members of the Monster community refer to this man as "Jodaddy"). "Jodaddy" was aware of the project and its goals, but was not permitted to disclose any information on it to his partner. It was arranged so that they would accidentally meet at a cafe in Prague, and from there Bonaparta used a formula he created to make the two of them fall in love. Naturally, in doing so, the man felt it was wrong to keep secrets from the woman, so he told her about the project then suggested that the two of them run away together. However, as their escape plan had already been predicted, the couple was apprehended; "Jodaddy" was executed while Viera was placed under constant surveillance until she gave birth. During her confinement, she realized that the man who often came in to draw her pregnant form was the one behind the experiment, so she cursed him, saying that her children would get revenge for everything he and his people had done to their family. He laughed and told her how amusing she was. Later, in 1975, the twins were born. Separation of Anna After Viera and the twins were released, they moved to the Three Frogs Building next to Čedok Bridge in Prague. While living there, the mother dressed both children as little girls in order to convince the public she had only a single child. One fateful day, Bonaparta and Peter Čapek appeared, with news that they would be taking one child away to be experimented on while the other would be able to stay at home; the catch was that she was the one who had to make the decision of which twin to give away, putting her in a Sophie's Choice-like scenario. First, she handed Johan over, but quickly changed her mind and gave Anna up instead. It is unknown whether or not she was aware of which child was which. This was one of the most crucial points in Johan's life -- was he the one his mother intended to send away, or did she just confuse him with Anna? That question would haunt him for the rest of his days. Anna and Viera were both taken away, and Johan stayed at the Three Frogs by himself. During this period, he spent a lot of time reading The Nameless Monster, a picture book written and illustrated by Franz Bonaparta under the name Emil Sebe, one of his many pseudonyms. The story was about a hungry monster that was looking for name. It would make deals with people, offering them strength in exchange for their identity, but after jumping into its hosts the monster would later become too hungry and devour them from the inside out. In the end, the it jumped inside a prince named Johan, and found itself satisfied with the name. However, he ate all the people Johan knew, so even though he had a name, there was no longer anyone left to call him by it. Anna later returned, and Johan asked her to tell him about everything she experienced. She described to him how she was locked in a dark room with no sense of direction. She just sat there for days and days, and somehow, her meals would appear out of nowhere. Eventually, there was a light and the door opened; Franz Bonaparta was standing there, telling her that people can become anything. Following that, she wandered through the halls of the Red Rose Mansion until she came to a large room where the organizers of the experiment were having a toast to their success in creating "the one." However, all of that was just a scheme set up by Bonaparta, who had fallen in love with the twins' mother and intended to kill everyone involved in the experiment with poisoned wine. Anna stood there and watched all of their lifeless bodies collapse onto the floor. Afterwards, Bonaparta approached her and said she and her brother must never become monsters, but she forgot to pass on this important detail to Johan. Johan got confused, internalised everything Anna told him, and ultimately took these memories for his own, honestly believing he was the one taken to the mansion instead of his sister. Start of their journey alone Viera returned around this time as well; she told the twins that they would have to live on their own. Johan cried, and then he and Anna burned down the Three Frogs and began their journey with no destination. They wandered aimlessly, cold and hungry, and met a middle-aged couple who provided them with food. After eating, the twins played in the grass before the man and woman while they discussed adopting them. However, Johan came over and slit the couple's throats before they could make any decisions. After that, he went back over to Anna and told her they were leaving because he had "a plan." Before running into General Wolf, they also met and/or stayed with the following people: Uncle Josef and Aunt Clara, Mr. Bedger, and Mr. Schlegel. The two continued walking and eventually, starving and on the verge of death, reached the "Scenery for a Doomsday" in the mountains by the Czech-German border, with the intent of dying there. However, patrol officer General Helmut Wolf rescued them. He looked in Johan's bag and found one thing: a copy of The Nameless Monster. He decided that he would name Johan, for some odd reason, after the monster Johan in the book, and gave Anna the name of Anna. After that, he sent them to two separate orphanages -- Anna to a place called Orphanage 47 and Johan to the infamous Kinderheim 511. This was around the year 1984. Kinderheim 511 Kinderheim 511 was an experiment set up by the East German government to create perfect soldiers; a lot of its procedures and programs were based off of Bonaparta's work. Little is known about what took place there, although survivors who were able to recall some memories stated that they took part in "debates" where they would psychologically destroy their opponents. Other children, like Wolfgang Grimmer, were subjected to activities like watching excessive hours of TV while put under a lot of stress. Johan was already beyond their program by the time he arrived, so naturally the director grew curious about him. He was drugged by some of the instructors and forced to partake in an interview (in later episodes, this was what got Jan Suk involved in the Johan mess, as he had a safety deposit box key to where the tape was being kept). Throughout this time, Johan and Anna "communicated" in a sense. At first the lady at his sister's orphanage thought it was nonsense when she said what Johan had done that day or whom he had met, but then one day Anna said, "Johan is going to leave Kinderheim 511 tomorrow," and sure enough, the following day Kinderheim fell into ruin. Johan no longer desired to be in Kinderheim, so he took advantage of the hatred and tension wandering about, and, as he put it, "added a little fuel to fire." He told the boys they were going to destroy the place, and together they managed to brainwash the instructors into hating the director and each other. Johan also created a fairytale that went like this: "In Kinderheim 511, there was a boy who was always kept under sleeping pills. Because he held the words that could destroy any person, the teachers thought he was a monster and kept him locked underground. Such was the terror that they felt towards him that they swore they could see ten horns and seven heads. But one day, the boy developed resistance to the drugs and awakened. He manipulated his jailors and slipped back among the pupils. But the boys didn't know who he was... because none of them knew each other's names or pasts. The boy hated everything about the facility, so he began secretly plotting to have everyone kill each other. First, he would steal all of their memories, so that they couldn't even remember their own names, and then offer them the path to death, through their torment... But the boys never even realized that they were being controlled. Could it be that someone is trying to manipulate us? And so this incredible fervor raced through the orphanage." Something about the story terrified the pupils and instructors, making them extremely paranoid to a point where they massacred one another. Two boys survived: Johan (needless to say), and Christof, who had been hiding in a cabinet. The two formulated a "plan" and decided they would meet again someday. The Lieberts Michael Liebert, a former adviser of commerce, along with his wife, wanted to adopt Johan. However, he refused to go anywhere without his sister, so Anna was adopted as well. In April 1986, the family fled to West Germany -- more specifically, the city of Düsseldorf. Franz Bonaparta, who was living in Ruhenheim under the name Klaus Poppe, saw them on TV and went to pay the twins a visit, even if he could only see their sleeping faces. The Lieberts allowed him in, and he looked at twins while under the impression that they were sleeping. Johan, however, was not asleep and thought that Franz Bonaparta, this "monster," was going to take he and his sister away. Consequently, he killed the Lieberts as some sort of protective measure. Anna heard the gunshots and woke up, then saw her parents' corpses alongside Johan standing there with a gun. She asked him why he committed such an atrocity, to which he responded by simply saying that he had to. He gave Anna the gun and ordered her to shoot him in the head, wipe the it afterwards to remove her fingerprints, and then run away. She obediently followed his request and shot him. The next door neighbors, who had woke up due to all the gunshots, called the police. The authorities arrived shortly after and Johan was taken to Eisler Memorial Hospital to be treated by Doctor Kenzo Tenma. Kenzo Tenma Kenzo Tenma was a bright, young neurosurgeon on his way up. He had come to Germany from Japan after he read one of Director Udo Heinemann's papers, which he was fascinated by. Heinemann had taken him under his wing and used Tenma's skills for his own benefit. At one point, Tenma was supposed to operate on a Turkish man who was brought into the hospital first, but Heinemann told him to perform surgery on an opera singer instead because his life was "more valued." Later, he ran into the wife of the Turkish man who died, and she hit him repeatedly saying, "Bring him back! If you had operated on him, he wouldn't have died!" with her sobbing son standing behind her. Tenma felt guilty about this, and asked his fiance, Eva Heinemann, how she felt: she told him that human life is not equal. Tenma thought that was wrong, and stood firm in his beliefs. That set the tone for his attitude when Johan was brought into the hospital on that rainy night. He was about to begin Johan's surgery, but received an emergency call from Director Heinemann, demanding he operate on Mayor Roedecker instead. Tenma had been deeply affected by the Turkish woman's words the previous day, so he refused Heinemann's order and continued surgery on the boy. Johan's operation was sucessful, but the mayor died; as a punishment, Tenma lost his position and ruined any chances he ever had about progressing in his career. He told Johan's comatose body that the "bastards who were responsible for doing that to him would be better off dead." Johan was actually awake during that time, and decided to grant Tenma's wish: using poisoned candy, he killed the director and the two doctors who caused his savior grief, then disappeared with Anna from the hospital. After their escape from the Eisler Memorial Shortly after escaping, he and Anna met a man named Rheinhard Dinger, who had run into complications for attacking a man after he abused his dog. Johan explained everything that happened to the police and said the Dinger was not in the wrong. After, the man unwillingly took the twins to his house. As the three were watching TV, Dinger commented on all the useless scum out there -- like the man who was abusing his dog -- and how they would be better off dead. Johan agreed, then proposed the idea that he could kill these unnecessary societal dregs. Dinger was easily convinced and turned into a serial killer -- to be precise, a cabby that killed those who showed him disrespect: spitting on him, swearing, having sex in the car, etc. The twins left after that, but eleven years later Johan came back and asked Dinger to kill someone, to which he readily agreed despite the fact that the man wasn't someone he'd usually dub "unrighteous." From there, the two went on to Heidelberg, where Johan left Anna with plans to retrieve her on their twentieth birthday (May 1995). Then, he went to another town and stayed with a family under the name Franz Heinau from March of 1987 to April of 1988. He struck up a good relationship with a blind man who was a former soldier. The man told him war stories and, per Johan's request, gave him his description of "ultimate fear." He also taught Johan French and English, which he had mastered by the end of that thirteen-month period. After this, Johan stayed with the Reichmanns in Köln for a year, the Schumanns in Hanover, a couple in Hamburg, and Hanna Kemp. The other Lieberts Next he went to Bruntal, where he found a new family with the last name "Liebert"; coincidentally, they had once had a son named Johan, but he died at the tender age of one. Johan jumped into this family, and a fire conveniently started where the town birth certificate records were kept, so the Lieberts were able to apply for a new certificate making it seem as though their son had never died. He provided his new family with a nice home in Offenbach Hessen. Johan didn't kill them until much later, and used them as a "backup" if necessary so he could prove he was just an ordinary teen (which later proved useful when Richard Braun was investigating him). Although he had established a family, he didn't spend much time with them. At the age of fifteen, he set up an underground money laundering business which turned out to be a huge success. During this time, he also spent several months living with Halenka Novakova. She was baffled by the extraordinary similarities between Johan and her friend, Viera Cerna. Halenka was the victim of a phantom killing in 1995; the assailant was and never will be found. Eventually, Johan grew bored of the underground bank, so he took some money and abandoned it. Without the organization's president, everyone involved went crazy, trying to take all the money for themselves; a massacre broke out and they all died. The middle-aged couples serial killings After this, Johan had to dispose of all his foster parents, so he manipulated serial killers around Germany to do his dirty work for him. One trio carrying out the executions involved Adolf Junkers and two of his partners . Naturally, Johan betrayed the group, killing two of them on the spot. The other, Junkers, just barely escaped but was hit by a car. He received treatment from Kenzo Tenma and made a miraculous recovery, but one night his paranoia caused him to run out of the hospital in terror. Tenma chased after him and they reached an abandoned building where Junkers was shot to death by Johan. This is when Tenma decided he would find and kill Johan with his own hands. He conducted his own investigations, which lead him to Heidelberg, where Johan had come to pick Anna up in May of 1995. Tenma interfered with his plans though, and rescued the girl from Johan's grasps. Involvement with the Neo-Nazis After that incident, Johan prepared to destroy an organization led by neo-Nazi leaders "The Baby," Gunther Goedelitz, Capek, and Wolf, who believed that Johan would become the next Adolf Hitler. Tenma, meanwhile, arrived in Frankfurt while investigating the murder of the Springers (a family Johan stayed with under the name Erich Springer before conveniently having someone kill his parents). He learned of The Baby's plans to destroy the Turkish district, then encountered Helmut Wolf, who requested of him to prevent the group's welcome party from happening. He also added that he wanted Tenma to be the person to kill Johan. As Tenma put a stop to the idiotic scheme, Johan annihilated the majority of the people involved in the organization. He then left a little note for Tenma on a water tower indicating that he may have split personalities, however, this is not true and was just Johan's way of playing with him a little. After that, Johan left and enrolled in the University of Munich. As a Law student Johan's plan in enrolling in the university was to get close to the former business tycoon, Hans Georg Schuwald. If everything went according to the initial plan, Schuwald would have ended up dead, giving Johan power over all of Europe's economy. First, Johan manipulated murderers to kill those close to Schuwald, further isolating him and making easier for Johan to fill this empty space in Schuwald's heart with himself. After his disposal of Edmund Fahren and all the ensuing events regarding Richard Braun, Johan befriended Karl Neuman, a young man who was Schuwald's real son but fearful to confess this to his father, and helped reunite the family. Delighted, Schuwald made Johan his newly appointed secretary. Karl and Schuwald decided that because Johan had a broad understanding of economics, if anything ever happened to Schuwald he would occupy his position instead of Karl. Johan's plan had run smoothly, and all he had to do was kill Schuwald at the book donation ceremony (which was to be done by Roberto), but instead found a copy of The Nameless Monster and regained some of his forgotten memories; he then changed his plans entirely and left Schuwald because he was no longer of interest. He gave his goodbyes with a fire at the donation ceremony. Johan then remembered his past, and had decided to erase everything. To that end, Johan Liebert embarked to Prague, where he established his identity as "Anna Liebert" and began emulating Nina by adopting her personality and manner of dress. First, he murdered Reinhart Biermann, the former headmaster of 511 Kinderheim in the period preceding the time Johan spent there and the following massacre, as he was in possession of a tape from his youth located in an undisclosed safety deposit box; several of the orphans Biermann was taking care of caught sight of "the beautiful blonde lady" as (s)he left the scene of the crime. He then tracked Inspector Zeman and two of his subordinates, who were formerly members of the Czechoslovakian StB and were trying to obtain the tape for the purpose of selling it, to a factory setting where they were torturing Wolfgang Grimmer for information about its location. Upon interrupting the interrogation, Johan (in his "Anna" disguise) shot one of the subordinates in the head, before apparently allowing (and perhaps inciting) Wolfgang Grimmer to kill the other two by manifesting his "Magnificent Steiner" personality. In Prague as "Anna" Thereafter, Johan, as "Anna", begin to frequent a local bar, where (s)he connected with Zeman's one-time protege, Detective Jan Suk, who was smitten with "her." However, the courtship seemed to be a means to an end, as Johan killed Suk's boss and other corrupt policemen involved with the StB who were trying to obtain the tape using poisoned whiskey bonbons, in a manner similar to his previous poisonings, deflecting blame and suspicion for the murders onto Suk. Later, he visited Suk's mother in the hospital and used her as an intermediary to relay information to others like Tenma, who had also come to Prague searching for information. He managed to locate the safety deposit box where the tape was, and copied over it with a message for Tenma. Meanwhile, in order to exonerate Grimmer from false suspicion of murdering Biermann, several of the orphans who were previously in his custody banded together to find the "mysterious blonde lady" and one of them, Milosh, found "Anna", who invited him back to "her" apartment and told him he should find his lost mother, but cruelly imparted that if he couldn't find her, then he had no place in the world; he then sent him to look for her in a nearby red light district, and it was only through Grimmer and Tenma's narrow intervention that the boy didn't commit suicide after failing to find his mother and witnessing several forms of human depravity along the way. Johan, with little else left to attend to in Prague, proceeded to burn down the Red Rose Mansion after giving a distant speech to his mother's portrait, before departing the city. Reunion with Christof Sievernich Thereafter, he attended a high society gathering back in Germany, where Eva Heinemann, who had encountered him once before, pointed him out to Peter Capek, enabling his long-sought reunion with Christof Sievernich, the only other "monster" who survived the events of the massacre at 511 Kinderheim. However, Johan had other matters to attend to as well, and proceeded to send the organization attempting to make him their leader into chaos, first having The Baby murdered by a prostitute who had connections to him and then surprising Capek at his country retreat, causing Capek to lapse into paranoia. The "Perfect Suicide" The last piece Johan needed to get rid of was Franz Bonaparta, but before that he finally met with his sister and told her about all horrible experiences he had at the Red Rose Mansion. Anna told him he was wrong, that that story wasn't his to tell as she was the one who witnessed the incident. The two talked, and, when they were done, Anna almost killed herself; she was saved by Tenma before that happened though. Johan visited Horst Grossman, his last remaining subordinate aside from those in Ruhenheim, and said he had woken up from the dream, that he knew where he had to be. Following Grossman's death, he went to Ruhenheim and destroyed the town's peace by instigating a massacre. In the midst of it all, he visited a small cottage on the edge of the town where he found piles of drawings of him and Anna as children. According to his sister, who visited the same place shortly after, he had been crying as he sorted through the unfinished sketches. Johan traveled back to the center of town and executed Franz Bonaparta, thus carrying out his mother's wishes ("The children growing inside of me will have my revenge"). He then tried to provoke Tenma into killing him by holding a gun to the head of a young boy, Wim Knaup, but instead was shot by the boy's alcoholic father who described Johan as "The Beast" from the Book of Revelation, with seven heads and ten horns. The End Ironically, Johan was operated on and saved yet again by Doctor Tenma, with urging from both Nina and Heinrich Lunge. At the end of the series, a few years later (as indicated by Another Monster stating that Johan still appears to be in a comatose state after a few years later), Tenma paid Johan a visit at the state police hospital, where he had been in a comatose state ever since the massacre. However, he somehow sat up and began talking to the other man, telling him the story of his mother's choice, and asked him which child wasn't needed. It is unclear whether this is a hallucination that Tenma experiences or whether this is actually real. Either way, Tenma gave no response and departed shortly after. Johan's fate following this is unclear, but his hospital bed is seen empty in the ending credits, ambiguously implying he has escaped from the hospital to do as he pleases or has passed away (although it is arguably more likely to be the former). Personality Johan Liebert is a serial killer who leaves no traces of himself or his involvement behind in each killing. Johan Liebert is not even his real name nor does he claim to know his true name or who he really is. He is implicit in killing most of his foster parents and in orchestrating at least two (later it becomes three) mass killings in which the idea of it all being a conspiracy coming from one person is just plain difficult for many people, including authorities, to believe. Johan is a mysterious young man, whom despite his looks and kind, soft spoken outer demeanor, is said to be a ruthless monster. He gives people little to no answers to explain who he is, what he does, or give any useful data, but what his presence does usually guarantee is a conspiracy to back hand, manipulate, deceive, psychologically torment, and betray each and every member of humanity (often vowing to do so in a way that leads to a rather complex chain reaction that could be comparable to a person setting off a series of explosions from a distance). Despite being described as a serial killer, Johan could more often be described as a serial killer by proxy. Though not afraid to directly kill someone himself, as shown when he executes Junkers and slaughters Geidletz and his men, Johan generally tends to eliminate his targets through indirect means, such as manipulating a third party into killing them for him, such as Roberto, the Sunflower guy, or various serial killers such as Jurgens, orchestrating horrific events or accidents, such as triggering the Ruhenheim massacre and the "accidents" that almost kill Richard Braun, or manipulating his victims into killing themselves, such as Edmund Fahren and possibly Richard. Though the mystery of Johan's past is the main focus of Monster, the way his mind works is left largely to the suggestion and speculation of the characters, with little real insight given. Based on his actions, Johan is an incredibly dangerous psychopath and a pure nihilist as well as physically, emotionally, and psychologically sadistic, as he corrupts and destroys men, women and children indiscriminantley for apparently little more then his own amusement. He also has an intense fascination with fear, possibly because psycopaths like Johan have an incredibly high tolerance for, boordering on immunity to, fear or anxiety, as evidenced by some of his actions, such as calmly walking the edge of a high building or calmly inviting people to shoot him. One very little detail that is passed by many and probably doesn't really matter, but still worth to note, comes from his talk with Nina in the abandoned building. When they were talking about the horrifying expirience from Red Rose Mansion, he put his hand on near the top of another to precisely show where was exactly a bleeding wound caused by a rose, when "he" ran from the mansion. Was that just a demonstration of that long ago moment? That way of holding arms is usually a sign of low self-esteem. This could be only a speculation but one very big puls for showing his instability are his doubts about being worthy of his own mother. He puts little emphasis on the self and as a result is able to easily convince many that he is smart, selfless, compassionate, and trustworthy or whatever other image he wants people to see. He is efficient in garnering people's loyalty, trust, and sympathies, especially where it counts the most. He more often than not takes advantage of each person in various ways leading to all sources of happiness in that person's life being taken away, snuffed out, or sabotaged. Johan has an unique method of eliminating people, his presence can leave such an impression on people that he is able to convince a handful or rather legions of people to commit murder, play suicide games, or do other monstrous things. Heinrich Lunge summed it up very nicely that Johan starts off by gradually luring people into removing the lines to their own inner maps so to speak. The more people remove the lines without really thinking about it the more room he has to redraw or redefine their map. When they are completely at his mercy, it is because they are so disconnected and shut off from what they once were and they are now easier to bend to his will. These people may in a sense be trapped in a delusion-like state or trapped in a nightmare, horror movie like scene, matrix, anarchy, hell, or underbelly of the underworld. It's safe to say if these people disappeared, no one would be able to miss them. These people, as a result, become the very scum of the Earth that they once looked down upon, smited, and reviled with hate. Johan Liebert tends to temporarily "befriend" these people, ally, and sympathize with them until he moves onto someone or something else to influence or toy with. It is said he treats people like a line of ants, and his desire is to toy with the line of ants any way he pleases. A blind man who once knew Johan Liebert said that the boy would never truly open up to anyone except for his twin sister, Anna Liebert/Nina Fortner. This same blind man also noted that the one thing Johan seems to be most interested in is how people react when having to face their worst nightmares or fears. The example of this would be when he performed a fire at the book donation ceremony by help of his followers. Roberto was impressed by this idea, saying that it is an even better plan, because it would drag the entire public into the trouble, not only Schuwald whom they planned earlier to assassinate with shot. Roberto also commented that each individual behaves like he is more important than other, pushing others and trying to break down a locked door to escape the chaos. At this point, we could conclude that Johan prefers to capture a negative side of people while performing various disasters. It also indicates that he enjoys to present it to Tenma, whenever he is involved in cases. Aside from his sister being the only person he cares about, Johan shows genuine appreciation and high regard towards Kenzo Tenma for saving his life over Mayor Roedecker's life. One really interesting fact about Johan is that he did most of the damage to the ones he cared the most or at least tried to do so. Possibly Johan wants those very few people to expirience terrible fate he did. General Wolf was capable of seeing the "Scenery for the Doomsday" right before facing death. Before that, he was left alone with no person that could prove his existence. At the end of the series, Roberto revealed to Lunge that, toward Johan's calculations, Tenma is supposed to expirience the same fate Wolf did. Anna's only foster parents are murdered. Franz Bonaparta could be the only exception. When Johan entered the 511, he was very early noticed by the higher-ups of the orphanage to be "different" than his peers. It was apparent that Johan differently reacted to the experiments. There might be theories of Johan being immune to it, another possibilty is that the experiments induced him to become an even greater monster. However we know that he wasn't brainwashed at all since he was able to counter attack the directors and destroy the 511. During the interview with Dr. Gillen, Werner Weber assumed that there might be another "Johan" from 511. Gillen however believes that these experiments were not the main cause for Johan to become a monster, yet Johan was already a monster before entering the orphanage. Johan is most certainly a prodigy. How intelligent is he exactly? No one really knows for sure, except he seems to be very good at learning things very quickly, digging up information for research, taking care of himself instead of relying on others, and profusely develops any other skill he may need in order to take advantage of people. He is probably a rare example of a child sociopath to start with even though he was forced to undergo inhumane experiments in Kinderheim 511. Johan is attached to very few material possessions and seems to possibly take considerable pride in that. He's aloof enough towards possessions that he will even hand out wads of cash to people he doesn't know so they can buy drugs. His tendency to cut out his own face or other's faces from pictures, burn people's books or documents, or scrawl messages on walls may also reflect this detachment. Sometimes he appears to enjoy destroying or defacing other people's most cherished possessions, valuables, or any other evidence of their existence, since he knows it will hurt them far more than it could ever hurt himself. He almost never stays in one place for very long, and he always figures when to leave at just the right time. He is such a difficult person to find, put under surveillance, profile, etc. that Inspector Heinrich Lunge, along with other reasons, consistently thinks that Johan Liebert is more likely an elaborate hoax fabricated by his number one suspect Kenzo Tenma instead of a real person. Johan takes extreme enjoyment in making others think he is not a real person or that he is too perfect to exist to the point that some people may think he is God-like, the Devil, or an entity that cannot be killed. One could say he is doing a fine job of playing a "I do not exist/you do not exist" game of sorts that he has come up with. The creators really like to tease the readers/viewers by making us feel afraid he might somehow be missing a soul or a human essence in general by never showing Johan eating much, undressing, or the most intimate details of the sort. If anyone does come too close to discovering Johan's past or identity, this unlucky person may end up murdered in a pinch. If anyone tries to stop him face-to-face, he may ask the person to shoot him in the head or do something horrible along those lines. He shocks many people with how little he cares for the value of a human life, including his very own and even people it would perhaps serve to benefit him more if they lived. We are given a much better idea of where his source of inspiration for his mode of operation(s) come from when we come across a particular children's storybook called The Nameless Monster, which was written by Franz Bonaparta, under the handle Emil Sebe. Skills Johan was indeed gifted for pretty much everything, Bonaparta wished. As it was stated by several characters, throughout the series. Manipulation Johan is remembered mostly for being a type of fictional antagonist who is a master manipulator of sorts. His capacity of manipulating could be imagined as a branching "tree" in which Johan would be a stem, presented as the center of the system, while a tree branches would be his various ways of manipulating, ranging from the simplest manipulation, (broad branches) to the more detailed operations (small and thiny branches). At the beggining of the series, his purpose of manipulating people is to have them by his side when needed. The victims were arguably used to commit murders and other dirty jobs. For those tasks, Johan would only choose already infamous criminals like Adolf Junkers who would be easier to arrest but would be too afraid to betray Johan, aware of his power. If Johan would be suspicious of some criminal, he would execute him. On the other hand, some criminals like Peter Jürgens who accepted Johan as their true friend and savior would commit suicide before they could be forced to utter any useful information about Johan. Some fellows were not blackmailed, but were manipulated in a different manner. The examples would be Richard Braun and Miloš. Johan's manipulation led to the total damage to both of their minds. Richard regretted for his past mistakes and "commited" suicide. Johan convinced Miloš that he is not wanted by anyone and thus destroyed his cheerful personality. Johan has an incredible skill of brainwashing people. People who think Johan is their friend usually develop similar characteristics to his and try their best to resemble him, leastwise a little. If a person is unable to complete Johan's task or doing things that is only at Johan's level, that person would feel terrible, desperate and traitorous. Most of the people who became good friends with Johan ended being trapped in Johan's "world", feeling completely untouched with the reality and wouldn't even mind their closest ones. Beside his manipulating with people, he is said to be very calculative and resourceful in business community. Heitmeyer said that the illegal Düsseldorf bank, lead by Johan, was very successful in a black market of underground society. The bank served as the safe place for laundering. According to Heitmeyer, Johan was only fifteen at that time. When he lose interest in managing the bank, he surrendered it to the mayority who remained. Expectedly, greed and hatred spreaded among the group for a very large amount of inheritance and the organization was destroyed. All the members ended up being killed. This is likely a part of Johan's scheme as he never leaves the group without causing chaos. Johan gained Schuwald's trust pretty quickly. Schuwald noticed Johan's talent in law and business, and decided to employ him as his personal secretary. To make it more secured, he approached the real son Karl to Schuwald as a "click" to enter Schuwald's position in business ot to be more precise; to succeed the position. Johan was supposed to have the top power over the European economy. Disguise Johan was also a master of perfect disguise. Arround the middle of the series in Prague, Johan plays the role of a spy, disguised as Anna. This disguise proved to be quite useful, not only for spying but also was able to fool the characters, when coming out of the building after commiting murder. However knowing Johan, Tenma wasn't fooled. Grimmer also strongly believed in the suspicion of disguised Johan. Johan was identical to Anna even to the point where he had the same voice as her. He just did the perfect acting as Anna where he leaved the impression of being beautiful, polite, charming and attractive, just what Anna/Nina is. It was easier for Johan to manipulate in this form, especially the male characters such as detective Suk. Learning foreign languages Tenma onced visited the blind man who teached Johan, French and English. The old man was impressed by Johan's intelligence and patience and told that Johan was a rare example of a young pupil who was able to master both languages at the end of thirteenth month period. Johan learned Latin in a very short time when attending the Munich university. He teached Karl as Johan hoped Karl would impress Schuwald with his Latin and Johan as his teacher. Schuwald was proud when heard Karl's readings over the phone and, of course, all the credits went to Johan. Relationships Johan formed relationships to only very few people. Anna Liebert/Nina Fortner It is clear the deep attachment Johan feels towards his twin sister Anna/Nina, who is possibly the only person for whom he feels affection. During a cassette recording made while he was in Kinderheim 511, he said, "What I'm most afraid of is forgetting Anna. The strange lessons we have everyday... are making my memories fade. Please, don't make me forget Anna. It's only Anna and me in this world." Johan also mentions several times their special connection as twins, calling Nina his "other half" and saying she is him and he is her. Their relationship is further complicated by the fact that as children they'd spend a great deal of time dressed as identical little girls, in identical dresses and hairstyles, in an attempt by their mother to hide the fact that she had twin children. This blurs the boundaries of their individual identities even more, to the point where Johan confuses Nina's shared experiences at the Red Rose Mansion as his own memories. Despite their emotional bond, Johan remains unfazed at his sister's repeated attempts to kill him, believing himself beyond redemption, and seems to passively wait for the time his sister will come to kill him once again. Dr. Kenzo Tenma Johan's relationship with Tenma is somewhat paradoxical. Johan has openly stated his gratitude towards the doctor for having saved his life, poisoning the ones that posed a threat to Tenma's career – Drs. Heinemann, Oppenheim and Boyer – and allowing him to live, despite Tenma not only knowing everything about his identity and past life and crimes but also actively trying to kill him, as a reward for saving Johan's life. He also claims Tenma is "more than a father" to him. Like General Wolf, who is not killed by Johan but left to live in complete solitude and fear after having all his close relatives and acquaintances murdered, Tenma seems to be one of the few people regarded as worthy of seeing "what Johan saw" – the scenery of doomsday, a life in absolute solitude, without a name, all his loved ones taken from him. Ironically, this may be borne out of some respect for both Tenma and Wolf, both of whom saved Johan from death and took care of him, though this is left unclear. On the other hand, Johan seems to enjoy playing this cat-and-mouse game with Tenma, leaving him messages on walls with clues about his next locations and generally leaving an obvious trail for the doctor to follow. As with Nina, he also passively awaits for Tenma to shoot him, or rather even invites it. Whether Johan does this out of a genuine death wish or to taunt Tenma into committing the crime of murder, thus becoming a monster himself, is left ambiguous, though it's highly likely it's for both reasons. Anna (mother) It can be thought that Johan had a deeper attachment to his mother than Nina to her mother, firstly because he was the one who cried when their mother left them to live by themselves. Secondly, he was the only of the twins who recalled 'being one with their mother', as per his visit to the Red Rose Mansion to see the Maria Theresa's Hall. Thirdly, as implied by the scene in the last episode, he was the only one thinking about his mother's choice at that time when Čapek and Bonaparta had to take on of them away. The true sentiments of his mother while making that choice might have been frightful for Johan, aktough he keeps on asking what really it were. However, if that scene is to be interpreted as an hallucination by Tenma, the former might not be the case. In any event, whether or not the latter scene does bear some truth or relevancy and irrespective of whether Johan holds his mother with any degree of respect, esteem or even love, the initial source of Johan Liebert's disturbing personality facets and outlook may have been rooted in his prenatal development, framed by his mother's desire for vengeance against Franz Bonaparta and her resultant promise to him that her children would attain that retribution on her behalf, since growing speculation and research in psychology increasingly indicates that personality formation in children taking place during prenatal development is affected by their mother's emotional tendencies during this period. Roberto Johan's relationship with Roberto, despite framing an important periphery storyline in the series, was largely left unseen and was mostly indirectly alluded to, as Johan and Roberto didn't often appear in the same scene and were only shown directly interacting and speaking with one another during the penultimate episode, when Roberto expired from his injuries. What is known is that Roberto has been intensely devoted to Johan, acting as his fervent disciple, ever since Johan Liebert allowed him to recall the best and most sublime moments of his otherwise deeply traumatic childhood by offering him warm cocoa, hearkening back to his friendship with Wolfgang Grimmer. Since his sense of identity was connected and largely confined to these brief but relatively idyllic moments amidst the overall social conditioning of the program at Kinderheim 511, Roberto likely sought Johan out as a source of emotional solace in spite of his otherwise antisocial and even sadistic outlook and hence immediately formed an inseparable bond with him on this basis. What, if any, feelings Johan had about Roberto are unknown, though it is likely he exploited and manipulated Roberto to suit his ends. Roberto sees Johan as a savior, a god figure and his feelings of admiration and devotion are very one-sided. It may be the case that Johan does empathize or at the very least distantly relates to his situation, much as he appears to in the case of appealing to other serial killers or those with sociopathic tendencies. Ultimately, however, Johan seems to hold Roberto with some contempt, when he coldly but wistfully denies his request to see "the scenery for a doomsday" after he's collapsed to the ground in his last death throes; though Roberto seems disappointed, he had previously acknowledged to Inspector Lunge that he only wished to see "the end" that Johan was attempting to implement, not that he necessarily would. Christof Sievernich What, if any, interactions Johan and Christof had prior to the aftermath of the massacre at Kinderheim 511 aren't indicated (c. age ten for both of them). However, what is shown is that, as the only other survivor of the events at 511 Kinderheim, Johan Liebert was the one to find a malnourished and feeble Christof Sievernich hiding in a cupboard, dazed but alive. Johan outstretched his hand to the boy upon finding him, appearing almost angelic to Christof in a flood of white light, sparing him the fate of the others at the orphanage, possibly because Johan was only interested in inducing others to commit atrocities during those moments (as implied by Hartmann's comments to Tenma), that Christof had passed a test of some kind in surviving the massacre that Johan had instigated where others hadn't (much like the other children he later manipulated as a young adult), or that he already suspected that he could play with Christof and/or eventually use him to suit his purposes in the future. It is quite likely that some combination of all three of these factors motivated Johan to rescue and befriend the boy, promising that they would meet again ten years later. Johan would manipulate events to ensure that Christof would meet him through their respective circumstances at a later point, including ensuring that he got adopted by the late Ernest Sievernich, an influential business mogul as head of the Sievernich Group and also a prominent figure in the ultranationalist, neo-Nazi community in West Germany, acting as one of four administrators in an organization that had the goal of seeking Johan out and making him the next Führer. Johan would also indirectly motivate Christof to kill others like his one-time girlfriend, Frieda Schilling. When they met according to plan ten years later, by the auspices of Peter Čapek at a high-society social gathering, they reviewed their ambitions and goals and rekindled their relationship, subsequently meeting at his hotel room, where Christof awaited "the devil", according to Martin. Later, when Eva Heinemann, who had been partly responsible for facilitating Johan and Christof's newfound relationship, sought Christof out and demanded to know where Johan was on threat of taking his life with a pistol she had on her possession, even shooting off his right ear, Christof's frustrations with her actions climaxed in a bout of rage, wherein he pounced on her and disarmed her at astonishing speed, pointing the gun at her and elaborating on Johan's seeming intentions to make him a politician, likely so they could implement their agenda of destruction. Whether Johan actually meant to do this or was again using Christof as a means to an unforeseen end (with the latter being most likely, and both being possible) is left unindicated. Appearance Johan is a tall blond young man who is mostly seen in the series with mild expression on his face. He has a beautiful blue eyes, hair of a medium length, pale skin and a face that arguably has no flaws as far as the lines and proportions. Beside that, he is healthy, well trained and has a proper lineament. Johan is elegant and charismatic and is consequently favored by many people, mainly among the female audience. As seen through the various encounters, Johan often leaves the impression of kindness and patience and thus easily earns respect of others. His presence can cheer people up from depressive mood. His appearance is based on Hitler's concept of an ideal Aryan. Whether did the look even more motivate The Baby and other Nazis to promote Johan as their leader or was it just the skills that delighted them, is however not cleared. Johan looks very similar to David Sylvian, the singer of the first ending theme, however it is not officially confirmed if Sylvian inspired his look. Even though Johan looks kind, anyone who closely made an eye contact with him, could see the monster, or how Schuwald described "The hell in his eyes". Another thing that is interesting to note is that his fringes are symmetrical and might indicate his dual personality, though this is also not revealed. As an adult, Johan is most commonly seen, wearing a beige lounge coat with lightly grey shirt or black sweater under and trousers of the same colour as coat. At an earlier age, he wore a dark blue coat with white shirt under and olive shorts. Johan is sometimes seen, wearing a necktie, both as a child and adult. When he was wandering with Anna on the Czech-German border, Johan was wearing attributes closely following the traditional German clothing; a white shirt with suspenders, shorts, black shoes with white rolled up socks. Johan is always calm and collected and usually walks uprightly, holding hands behind his back. He also tends to speak smoothly which is probably the part of his charm. Ideology Johan's thinking and motives are largely left unclear, however it is very apparent by his actions and strange attitude that his way of thinking completely differs from the other characters's. Just as opposite to Dr.Tenma, Johan contradicts the equality of people. He stated at some points throughout the series, the meaningless of life. As when he said to Milosz that human is just an insight flash fated for the very soon death from Johan's perspective. Johan also believes that the only thing, all the people are equal in, is death. The reason for believeing in this is uknown, although Johan's childhood and "Sophie's choice" led him to believe that he is fated to die alone in solitude. From this it could be said that the story from his early ages is the main cause for developing such a monstrous personality. It is possible that his belief in futility of human's existence is just the way he comfronts himself. Timeline May 1975 *Johan Liebert is born in the city of Prague, alongside his twin sister Anna, as the products of an experiment engineered by Franz Bonaparta. *He, his mother, and his sister move into the Three Frogs building. 1981 *Franz Bonaparta and Peter Čapek come to the Three Frogs to take either Johan or his sister away for experimentation; their mother is forced to choose and selects the latter. She is also taken away. *Anna escapes from the Red Rose Mansion and tells Johan about the massacre she witnessed (he takes these memories in as his own). *The twins' mother arrives back and informs the two that they will have to live on their own, so they burn down the Three Frogs and start heading west. *The two encounter various people, including Uncle Josef and Aunt Clara, Mr. Bedger, Mr. Schlegel, and an unnamed couple who offer them sandwiches (see episode 66). 1982 *Johan and his sister are found starving and nearly dead on the Czech-Germany border by Helmut Wolf. *While Anna is enrolled in Orphanage 47, Johan is sent to the infamous Kinderheim 511. 1985 *Johan initiates a massacre within Kinderheim 511's walls; only he and Christof Sievernich are left alive. 1986 *Anna and Johan are adopted by the Lieberts. *Franz Bonaparta pays the twins a visit; Johan consequently kills their new parents. Anna discovers his crime and shoots him in the head at his request. *Johan is taken to Eisler Memorial Hospital where he is operated on by Kenzo Tenma. *Johan kills three of Tenma's superiors before fleeing the hospital with his amnesia-stricken sister. *The twins stay with Reinhardt Dinger. *Johan and his sister move in with the Fortners in Heidelberg; he disappears a few months later. 1987 *Johan stays with the Heinaus in Munich. 1988 *Johan moves in with the Reichmanns in Köln. 1989 *Johan lives with the Schumanns in Hanover. 1990 *Johan stays with an unnamed family in Hamburg (date is approximate). 1991 *Johan finds another Liebert family in Bruntal. Playing the role of their son, he provides them with a home in Offenbach Hessen. *The underground money laundering corporation begins. 1992 *Halenka Novakova retires from prostitution and begins living with Johan (they share an apartment in Offenbach Hessen). 1993 *Johan hires Adolf Junkers and company to kill off some of his former foster parents. 1994 *Johan moves in with the Springers in Frankfurt (however at this point, he has yet to abandon his second "Liebert" family). 1995 *Johan executes Junkers and his partners, crossing paths with Tenma in the process. Tenma decides to set off on a quest to kill his former patient when he learns the man's true identity. *After traveling to Heidelberg, Johan attempts to "pick up" his sister on their twentieth birthday, but Tenma interferes with his plans. Her parents, however, end up dead by the hands of two men Johan hired. 1996 *Johan puts an end to the underground bank; it goes down with a massacre. *Halenka Novakova is murdered by Johan or someone at his request. *Johan evades The Baby's "welcome party" to make him the new leader of a neo-Nazi organization in Frankfurt. 1997 *Johan enrolls in the University of Munich. *Trying to get close to Schuwald, Johan kills off many of the former tycoon's friends, colleagues, and associates. *Johan latches onto Edmund Farren, trying to convince Schuwald the boy is of blood relation to him. When Farren is no longer of use (aka when Karl enters the picture), Johan puts him up to suicide. *Richard Braun encounters Johan while investigating Farren's death; he digs too deep and ends up dead. *Karl Schuwald and his father are reunited with Johan's help. To thank him, Schuwald offers Johan a position as his secretary. *After coming into contact with The Nameless Monster, Johan faints in the University of Munich library. *Schuwald's book donation ceremony goes up in flames. *Johan travels to Prague, where he kills off many people involved in his past and meets Jan Suk while cross-dressing at a bar. He leaves the young detective in a position similar to the one Tenma was faced with in 1986: three superiors dead and one man to blame. *Johan burns down the Red Rose Mansion and comes into contact with Hermann Führ. 1998 *With the help of Eva Heinemann, Johan and Christof are reunited. *Johan meets with Peter Čapek to obtain information on Franz Bonaparta's whereabouts. *Johan finally comes into contact with Nina. He tells her about his visit to the Red Rose Mansion and the massacre he saw back in 1981; Nina corrects him, claiming that she was the one who witnessed the tragedy. *Unconfirmed, but Johan may have visited Jaromír Lipsky to receive information regarding Franz Bonaparta's location. *Johan travels to Ruhenheim and orchestrates a massacre, wiping out not only Bonaparta but also the entirety of his "peaceful home". *After being shot in the head by Herbert Knaup, Johan is saved by Kenzo Tenma and enters a comatose state. Other Another Monster Another Monster was written basically for the compilation of testimonies for and against Johan. Birthday There is some question as to when the birthday of the twins is. Near the beginning of episode twenty one in the anime, there is a brief moment showing a file for Nina Fortner, which states her birthday as April 7th. However, the manga does not provide the same information (though instead of giving a different date, the birthday is just excluded entirely). In the first chapter of Another Monster, one of the paragraphs reads as following: "In May of 1995, a shocking incident occurred in Heidelberg. Christianne and Erich Fortner, along with a visiting newswriter from the Heidelberg Post, Jacob Mauler, were shot to death in their home." Since Johan killed her parents and Mr. Mauler on their twentieth birthday, this implies the two were born in May. Furthermore, if they were born after the twenty first, their astrological symbol would be Gemini, or the sign of the twins. Quotes "The big secret to breaking the rules is to make it look as though you're following them." "Tell me, what do you think is the ultimate fear? I really thought I'd already reached the darkest of the dark, but then, ahead of me, I beheld a darkness even greater still." "I woke up from the dream. There were so many visions I had of the end, but now, I'm picturing a different ending altogether. A clearer vision of the true ending. It's from a memory only I have; the real place where I must be." "How weak the mind when it wants to forget. Maybe you didn't forget. Maybe you're lying. Is it a lie you tell everyone around you, or perhaps a lie you tell yourself?" "I was supposed to die that night. You're the one who resurrected me, doctor." "Doctor Tenma, for you, all lives are created equal; that's why I came back to life. But you've finally come to realize it now, haven't you? Only one thing is equal for all, and that is death." "You can see it, the scenery for a doomsday." "What can you see when you look into my eyes? I was born in a town that was straight out of a fairy tale. Many people died there. And when I walked away, I held hands with my other self. To me, it seemed like we were the only two people in the whole world. Neither one of us possessed a real name." "The end. What exactly is the end? The end. The end. The end. I've seen the end over and over. What is the end?" "Do you think your sin will disappear if you lie?" "What I'm most afraid of...is...forgetting Anna. The strange lessons we have every day...are making my memories fade. Please, don't make me forget Anna. It's only Anna and me in this whole world." (stated by his younger self) "The monster inside of me, wasn't inside me. It was outside." "There's nothing special about being born. Not a thing. Most of the universe is just death, nothing more. In this universe of ours, the birth of a new life on some tiny corner of our planet is nothing but a tiny, insignificant flash. Death is a normal thing. So why live?" "Was my mother really trying to save me that day, or was she just confusing me with my sister? Well, which is it? Which one of us didn't she need?" Trivia Knowing that Urasawa admires Osamu Tezuka a lot, Johan might be based on Michio Yuki, the antagonist from Tezuka's manga MW, who has a very similar background and character as Johan. Starting as an innocent child, going through the secret military experiments and so on... Pictures johanpeek.jpg|Johan is watching you. thank you.jpg|Johan in broad day light. johan smile.jpg|He uses his good looks to get to people's hearts. wavyhair.jpg|In the first volumes of the manga, he had wavier hair. 0_671e5_a141479c_orig.jpg|Johan is seen in many of Franz Bonaparta's sketches along with his twin sister, Nina. 34. At the Edge of Darkness.avi snapshot 10.51 -2012.07.14 19.12.43-.jpg|A prostitute gave Johan a free balloon. Category:Major Characters Category:Experiments